Sliding Scales

Sliding Scales (2004) is a science fiction novel written by Alan Dean Foster. The book is the ninth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series. In Sliding Scales Flinx is confounded by how to proceed with his life. He abandoned his injured girlfriend, Clarity Held, on the planet New Riveria under the protection of his friends Truzenzuzex and Bran Tse-Mallory (see events in Flinx's Folly) with the understanding he would search the galaxy for the ... more

Sliding Scales (2004) is a science fiction novel written by Alan Dean Foster. The book is the ninth chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series. In Sliding Scales Flinx is confounded by how to proceed with his life. He abandoned his injured girlfriend, Clarity Held, on the planet New Riveria under the protection of his friends Truzenzuzex and Bran Tse-Mallory (see events in Flinx's Folly) with the understanding he would search the galaxy for the Tar-Aiym weapons platform that has once been in the system Pyrassis. Not knowing where to go to start the search, Flinx first visits his homeworld of Moth, then broods as his ship, Teacher takes in aimlessly through the galazy. Teacher’s AI suggests something unusual to take him out of his funk: a vacation. This is followed another surprising suggestion: that he take the vacation in an isolated world that falls within the reach of the AAnn Empire, a near-desert planet named Jast. The native sentient species of Jast is the Vssey, a single-sex... less